Massachusetts '28s: The Next Wave of Impact Players

Massachusetts has no shortage of talent in the Class of 2028. As the first wave of Division I commitments begins to take shape, another group of players has the tools to make an impact at the next level and could be among the next to come off the board.   Here are five 2028 Massachusetts players with the talent to commit sooner rather than later.    As a coach, you want an SSDM who can go against big, strong midfielders and smaller, quicker dodgers. Yoo can do both. I love his combination of upper- and lower-body strength plus quick feet. You love a shorty who won't sit back and react. Yoo wants to be the aggressor and not give opposing midfielders easy downhill dodges. The part I loved most about his summer highlights was seeing him close out with a wrap check. It stuns dodgers and puts the ball on the ground more often than not. As a three-sport athlete at Belmont Hill, you see it in how willing he is to put his body on the line and how he moves in the clear. Yoo has a solid stick in transition and really knows how to draw defenders before dishing it to his attackmen for advantages.     With so much offensive talent around him, it would have been easy for Papadakis to get lost in the mix. Instead, he quietly produced all summer. A lefty slasher/finisher type of attackman, he made a ton happen in tight and around the goal line. Inside, he has great hands and can get the ball out in one motion. As a dodger, he is more of a one-quick-move-and-go player from behind the cage and on the lefty wing. Papadakis has the quickness to create separation when he wants to, both for his own shot and to open up feeds in sticky situations. What I admire most about his game is his toughness and the way he endures a beating from opposing defensemen. Just looking at him, you would not assume he is that strong, but he is. He uses it to his advantage by welcoming contact, initiating it himself, and finishing through defenders.     I was impressed with the Hilltop SSDMs at the IMLCA Summer Players Summit, and Pierce Brille was one of them. He is not the biggest or quickest player out there, but when I watch him, I see a competitor and a dawg. In one-on-one matchups, he plays his angles well and has a tough cross-check to get around. What stands out, though, is how disruptive he is. As a lefty, he has built an arsenal of moves to jar the ball loose from dodgers more accustomed to right-handed short sticks. He has hard slaps, wrap checks, V-holds, and, if a dodger gets lazy, a crowbar.   Defenses are eventually going to slide to shortsticks. When that happens with Brille, he stays on shooters, waiting for them to hang their stick so he can get one last trail check in. That creates a ton of turnovers. He also checks the other boxes of being an SSDM: he is great off the ground and has a good enough stick to make things happen in transition.     Ko, an Atlanta native with plenty of skill, put up 11 goals and 33 assists at Phillips Academy Andover in the spring. With a stat line that tilted so heavily toward assists, I had to check out his tape. What makes him such a good feeder is the deception in his eyes and his zero-second decision-making. You rarely see him stare down a feed, let alone look where he is actually passing. He throws a ton of no-look skips to open shooters, and even when he looks toward his target, he constantly moves his head and eyes to make defenders second-guess themselves. When the ball moves to attack rotations, Ko has already scanned the field. He makes incredibly quick decisions and dishes it out with one-timers.   In the summer with 3d Georgia, he played midfield and showed off his range and versatility. In settled offense, he kick-started possessions with toe-tappy, quick dodges. He is a great finisher in tight, able to score with either hand and a quick release. What stood out most was his impact between the lines. He quickly turned defensive possessions into transition opportunities and delivered a couple of big, clean hits in the middle of the field.     Catching my eye at Main Stage for his dodging ability, Van Dorn is the kind of midfielder every team needs at least one of. He looks like a bull out of the gate with the way he gets downhill out of the box. With his size, he dictates matchups. Even when defenses slide and steer him where they want him to go, he has plenty in his bag. He is great at getting shots off with both hands to the middle and off re-dodges, where he loves a hard rollback or an S-dodge near the goal line. Van Dorn can burn holes through the net with his feet set or on the run, and when you shoot that hard, goalies are going to tense up. He has the toughness to go with his size. In double teams and groundball scrums, he tends to come out with the ball even when he looks dead to rights.

Massachusetts has no shortage of talent in the Class of 2028. As the first wave of Division I commitments begins to take shape, another group of players has the tools to make an impact at the next level and could be among the next to come off the board.